


Bring Him Home

by Morgana



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2009-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-05 18:29:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgana/pseuds/Morgana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Spike taken by the First, Buffy has to figure a way to get him back</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Buffy stared at the empty chains, her eyes blank and unseeing. Inside somewhere she was screaming, rage and fear for her vampire reducing her to wordless shrieks, but outwardly she just turned away and went back upstairs. 

Dawn looked up when Buffy walked into the living room, her eyes filling with fear and worry when Buffy shook her head in silent answer to the obvious question. Buffy wanted to go over and hug her, hold her close and tell her everything would be okay, but she couldn't. So she did the next best thing. 

"Okay, guys, we need to get mobilized. Willow, can you do a location spell with the manacles? Xander, I'll need you to come with me for back up." She hesitated, then looked at the two girls on the couch. "Anya, can you take Dawn to Xander's place? I really don't think anybody should stay here, just in case they come back." 

Willow and Xander exchanged worried looks, then Willow asked, "Um, Buffy? Shouldn't we think about this before we go charging in blind? I mean, you know what Giles always said: haste makes-" 

"Speed," Buffy cut in. "And that's what we have to have if we're gonna get Spike back before whoever has him does... whatever they're going to do." She deliberately closed herself off to thoughts of just what that might be. That way lay badness and panic, neither of which would bring him back to her any faster. 

She went over to the weapons chest, already starting to make a list of what they'd need when something about the dead body near it caught her attention. Buffy frowned and went over to the crumpled figure, crouching down to pull back the hood and take a closer look. What she saw sent a chill straight through her. 

Mutilated eyes, or what used to be eyes, stared up at her. She'd only seen those kinds of scars once before, but it was a time that she'd never forget. Giles had tried to explain about the 'ritual scarification' that these guys went through to prove their devotion, and now she wished she'd listened better. Maybe if she had... no, she couldn't think that way. Not yet, anyway. 

"I know these guys," she said quietly. Buffy took a shaky breath and stood up, then turned to face her friends. "I've fought them before. And I know what has Spike."  
   
"It's the First."


	2. Chapter 2

Several hours after she'd discovered who took Spike, Buffy finally locked the front door and went up to her bedroom. She'd managed to keep busy, first burying the dead Bringers, then securing Andrew for the night and helping Xander unload lumber and glass to repair the window. But now there was nothing left to do, no task to fill her hands or distract her mind, just the quiet of a house asleep and the cold certainty of his absence.

As if her silent acknowledgement of it was all that was needed, the reality of it came rushing up over her in a wave: Spike was gone. They'd taken him, wrested him from the chains that he'd insisted on wearing and carried him away, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason he wasn't dust yet _God, don't let him be dust, he can't be dust, he just can't be_ was because there was more pain to be wrung out of them both by keeping him alive.

And he would take it, too, take whatever they gave him because he thought he deserved it. She'd seen that in his eyes downstairs, the desire for someone to hurt him and prove that he was truly a monster. And she couldn't deny that for a second, she'd been tempted. But they were beyond that, both of them, and she wouldn't let herself go back into that darkness. So she'd tried instead to tell him about the changes she'd seen, the struggle that she watched him face, but in her usual fumbling way, the words didn't seem to come out right. And he hadn't believed her, not the way she wanted him to.

Why was it that the people she cared about always ended up paying for her transgressions? First Angel, then Giles, Mom, Dawn and now Spike... one way or another, they all ended up hurt because she couldn't stop the bad things from coming. She was the Slayer- nightmares, vampires, demons and hell gods would always seek her out, and that meant others would suffer for her calling. Maybe this was why other Slayers didn't have family or friends, why they fought alone, so that they didn't have to watch the ones they loved fall because of them.

Buffy forced herself away from the door, taking first one stumbling step forward and then another, until she dropped to her knees on the floor, her hands rising to cover her face. A soft keening noise broke free, the thin wail a faint reflection of the agonized cries that burned in her throat and filled her head. Tears stung the back of her eyes but she fought against them, struggled to hold on, just hold on until she'd gotten Spike back. She could cry then, could break once she knew he was there, but not now, not with no one to hold her and tell her it would be all right.

"Go ahead an' cry, pet. Things aren't gonna get any better, can tell you that."


	3. Chapter 3

For a fraction of a second, her heart leapt at the sound of his voice and Buffy wondered if maybe it had all just been a bad dream. But when she looked up, it was all too clear. The blue eyes that studied her weren't the eyes that always shone with love when he looked at her, the lips curled in a cold sneer weren't the lips she'd kissed over and over again, and the hands that reached down as though to help her up weren't the hands that had held hers after she climbed out of her grave.

She shrank back against the wall and whispered, "You aren't him." Her voice sounded like dried leaves rubbing together, her usual confidence and power fled in the face of this thing that looked so much like her vanished lover.

He laughed softly. "Got it in one, sweetheart. Guess you aren't quite the blonde you like to make yourself out as, are you, now?"

"Is he-"

"Still in one piece when I left him," he replied with a shrug. "Course, can't answer for what might happen when my new pet gets bored." He cocked his head slightly, the gesture tearing at her with its familiarity. "What, no welcome home kiss, pet?"

The name sliced into her heart, the same one that she'd tried to make him stop using over and over again. But he'd never listened, had just smirked and called her 'pet' again, or 'luv' or 'sweetheart' or some other silly British word that never really made sense but always seemed to make her smile once she was alone in her room. And now he was gone, maybe never to call her any of those things again, replaced with this thing that looked like him.

"Don't." She forced the word out of her throat, looking away in an attempt to hide her tears. "Just... don't look like him."

"Still can't stand the sight of me then, Slayer?" She could hear the wounded sneer in his voice, the veneer that he always used to try and hide his pain, and the thought of this creature using Spike's own nature to mock him...

Rage surged through her and she sat bolt upright, turning to glare at him. "Shut up! You don't know anything about him, or me, or what we've been through together. And until you do, you don't get to say a goddamn thing!"

He clucked his tongue, lips turning up in a smirk. "Such language, luv! Think your mum would like hearin' her daughter talk that way?"

"You leave her out of this!" she snapped. "She liked-"

"Yeah she did, didn't she? Course, you wouldn't allow it, too busy goin' on about me bein' an evil soulless thing. Notice it didn't keep you from screamin' when I bent you over an' fucked you blind, though." He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and gave her that special smile, with his tongue curling behind his teeth, the seductive look that had never failed to make her knees weak.

Until now. She screamed in frustrated rage and threw the first thing she could grab at him, which happened to be the small hand axe Spike favored. It sailed through his midsection and thudded dully into the wall. "What is it with you and going after my boyfriends, huh? Why can't you just leave me alone?!?"

Blue eyes shifted to brown and this time it was Angel who stared at her with a pained gaze. "I thought you were my girl," he said in a low voice. Before she could respond, he walked towards her, and as she saw his lips curl in a small smile, her heart surged up into her throat. This wasn't her first love, wasn't the man that had touched her with such tenderness.

"Why so scared, lover? I'd think you'd be glad to see me like this. After all, you took it from Spike when he didn't have a soul- thought you might wanna try me the same way." He crouched down, close enough that she could almost smell the fetid stench of stale blood and cigarette smoke on his breath. It still turned her stomach, but he didn't seem to take notice of her open revulsion, just said softly, "You'll get your vampire when and if I finish with him. Just remember that he was mine first, Slayer, and I'm not done playing yet. But I'll make sure to send him back... can't say what kind of condition he'll be in, of course."

Screams and tears clogged her throat, making speech impossible. She could only stare at the once-beloved face and listen as he told her, "This isn't gonna end with a few snowflakes, this time. You got off easy before, but you and your vampire and your whole stinking world are about to learn exactly what I'm capable of. Think about that when you're all alone in your bed wishing for dead hands on your skin."

"Get out!" she screamed, her fury mounting as he rose, laughing at her impotent rage. "Get the fuck out of my house!"

His mocking laughter mingled with the frantic knocks on her door and calls from the hallway. Buffy swiped her hand across her eyes and went to answer the door. Hopefully her friends wouldn't see through her faltering explanation. Maybe if they believed her promise to get Spike back and beat this thing, then she could too.


End file.
